Levi, Rosalyn & friends become better artists by drawing one picture a day.

Month: March 2010

Today’s ODAD comes from Riley Slater, one of the few 9 year olds I know that has a drawing desk in the corner of his room. He’s already cooked up some great comics of his own. He’s going to be scary-good someday. It’s impressive that he chose to draw Spiderman. Spidey isn’t easy to draw, those web patterns on his costume always scared me away.

Here’s how he describes today’s drawing:

Spidey has his head turned to the left, and has an injury on his right cheek. Here’s what he says: “Anyone seen Scorpion? Yeah, that’s where I got the scratch!”

He’s got the Spidey-wit down.

So any other folks up to sharing their work? (I’m not going to stop asking, btw.)

In case this ODAD leaves you scratching your head, this is Batman hanging from ladder, beating off a shark that has clamped onto his leg. I’ll give you a hint which Batman movie this is from: It’s not The Dark Knight.

On a more technical note, I think I’m starting to get the hang of how to use pen and ink. Apparently less is more. Compare the first ODAD with this one and you’ll see I used way fewer lines. I think it has a better effect. Also, I sketched out every line beforehand with a pencil on this one and that helped too. It’s better to know exactly where the ink is supposed to go before you start.

Tonight’s ODAD is Adam West’s Batman–who is cut from slightly different cloth than the Christian Bale Batman.

Here’s the full quote that I used for tonight’s title:

Robin: “Boy! That was our closest call ever! I have to admit that I was pretty scared!”
Batman: “I wasn’t scared in the least.”
Robin: “Not at all?”
Batman: “Haven’t you noticed how we always escape the vicious ensnarements of our enemies?”
Robin: “Yeah, because we’re smarter than they are!”
Batman: “I like to think it’s because our hearts are pure.”

Today, I chickened out in a number of ways. First, I did a headshot. Drawing heads is way easier than drawing a full body. It’s harder to mess up the proportions of an oval rather than the bizarre polygon that is the human figure. Secondly, I drew this with a pencil. I don’t like drawing with a pencil, I much prefer pen and ink. It’s hard to get good contrast with a pencil and it takes way more strokes. Still, it’s easier to cover up mistakes when drawing with pencil… I guess I just wasn’t feeling brave.

I’m not crazy about the drawing. I was trying to work with a strong light source. Shadows are funky things and the human face is even funkier. It has all these folds, hills, and valleys that you would know of until they are revealed in a strong light. So when shadows are done right, they look amazing. When they aren’t. Well…

I also smeared the pencil lines, an effect I hate, hate, hate. So why did I do it?

This wasn’t what I intended when I started but it sort-of morphed during creation. It’s got huge problems, right? Her proportions are all off and the lines are messy. But hey, there’s a reason I’m calling this a “drawing” blog and not an art blog.